Only Chance

7.

Ozanne reluctantly showed me to her room.

"Welcome to my humble abode," she joked as she led me in.

Her room was very different from all the other rooms in the cottage. A huge table with different vials sat on one end with a cute wooden chair settled next to it, while her flatbed stuck out on the other end of the room, its mattress designed with stitched stars and including a fluffed-up pillow. Other than that, there were many pots of plants resting atop a shelf, a little closet, and a piece of bark strung on the wall with the words "I'm Not Home, I'm In Paradise." There was only one window.

"Nice," I complimented as I examined her ampul's on the desk.

"Thanks," she responded happily. "I love it too."

We scanned the room in silence for a moment, before I said: "Hey, what are you going to teach me?"

"Potions, I guess...?" she responded as if it were obvious. She looked me in the eye. "So, what do you want to learn about them? I do warn you that I'm quite a bad teacher, though." She laughed a bit at that.

"You'll do fine," I smiled. "So... um...?" I fiddled with my hair, feeling awkward. "Okay, what about this? What are the basics of potions? And how do you make them? Magic, or science?" I looked up at Ozanne.

"Neither," she grinned, sassing her hair behind her back, deciding to answer my second question. "It's logic you have to battle against."

"Huh?" I said, genuinely confused.

"Okay Adelphia, I see you have some to learn," she said, surprisingly patiently. "You said that you would need science, or even magic to produce potions, and that is wholly untrue. Sure, you may need the sap of a maple tree directly from the Zupia empire. Or sometimes you'll need a few special seashells from the bottom of the Eshaizar empire. But that aside, either way, it's the same."

"How?"

"Look," she walked up towards me and took a container filled with dark brown liquid from the table. "My newest invention. It turns people into cats. Big cats." She looked pleased.

"Um, fascinating...?" I muttered, hoping it didn't sound like a question more than an answer.

"I've made better things before," Ozanne said promptly, sensing my sarcasm. "But what's the point is how I made it." She shook the bottle, before asking me a few questions. "What do you think I needed to use to make this?"

"Um, something of a cat, obviously," I answered nervously.

"Yes, indeed. For this potion, I used cat hairs."

"Why?" I questioned.

"They are the most, well, something that shows up most on a cat. Plus, hair cells contain the DNA I need," she replied confusingly. "So, Adelphia, do you think they were half hairs, multiple hairs, a single hair, or so on?" She held up the bottle closer to my face.

"I suppose they were multiple hairs." I cocked my head as I answered.

"Good, that's correct," she said importantly. "Do you know why?"

"Well... a cat has more than one hair?" I answered skeptically.

"Yes- and how did you figure that out?" Ozanne asked expectantly, pointing a finger at me as if I'd really hit something.

"Uhm... my brain?" I replied, feeling like an idiot.

"No- well, yes, but, what in your brain did you get the information from? What is it called?" Ozanne asked, her impatience seeping and spilling over her words.

"Um, the neutrons in my brain cells?" I said awkwardly.

Ozanne slapped her forehead. "There are no neutrons in your brain cells, they're neurons!" she sighed, and then flicked her finger at the cat potion. "It's logic, Adelphia. Simple as that."

"Oh," I said, not numbly or grandly, feeling more and more like an idiot by the second.

She paused for a moment to let that sink in, and then continued: "Now that's easy logic- of course a cat, or at least the common cat, has more than one hair. If you're really into potions, you'd know that. The logic can be much, much more complicated in order to hit the right spot and make the right potion. I guess there is a bit of science, too... you were right about that. And magic too- but magic is the result, not the potion itself." She stared at me as I tried to process everything she had said.

"Got it," I said finally, sounding anxious, before another question popped up. "Wait, how did you make the cat bigger?" I suddenly asked.

"My favorite question!" she squealed. "Look Adelphia, look all around you. There are bigger versions of things, and smaller versions of things. A potion is like a human, it needs to be taught to learn and know things. So, therefore...?"

"Umm, we should teach the potion somethings?" I muttered, feeling stupid again.

"Yep!" she beamed, to my suprise. "Usually, we can put everyday things or objects in at the same exact time as the main ingredient, in this case, the cat hairs!"

"What?" I queried.

"Let's say, we wanted to turn it into a big cat. We have the hairs, so now we declare the size. Usually, I would add something a cat likes playing with, or eating, to motivate the potion in the correct direction."

I stared at her as if she was speaking in a different language.

"So, like, we have hairs for the base, and now we'll add something the cat likes to determine the size?" I asked. "How does that work?"

"Adelphia, isn't it obvious? Let's say our cat likes eating mice. Well, then we'd add either a big mouse or a small mouse!" Ozanne rolled her eyes.

"Oh yes," I gulped. "Er, umm, I knew that."

"Sure you did," Ozane said sarcastically, but not losing her energy. "Then, the next step is to consult books. Potion-making is a bit harder than natural combat, but once you get the hang of it, it's fun. So, books would help you apply the magic part. Usually there's a formula for the type of potion you're making. For example, if I were making a potion to turn someone into something that is an animal that is a vertebrate and lives on land, I'd put two honeysuckle nuts from the trees at the edge of the Veannekha empire, three leaves from apple trees that are near water and some sort of backbone-lookalike, for this I could use a stick."

"And you manage that?" I questioned, surprised.

"We are living at the edge of the border between the Veannekha and Thinia empire," she responded. "And my father lives near a rushing creek. He enjoys planting trees."

"I knew that too."

"Sure, you know everything," she teased, before she took a look out her singular window. "Look, it's getting late. You might want to get ready for bed now," she told me briskly.

"Alright," I responded, still in a little daze of what I just learned.

As I turned to leave, Ozanne stopped me.

"Oh, and Adelphia?" she said, in a whisper.

"Yeah?" I answered softly back.

"You're welcome to come anytime," she grinned, gesturing to her room.

I smiled.